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INTRODUCTION:


As we see around the globe together with central and Eastern Europe as well as Southeast Asia,
women are starting and operating their own businesses in record numbers. In Canada the
number of women entrepreneurs grew by 8% between 1996 and 2001 as compared to 0.6%
increase for men and it encourage the female entrepreneur and has enabled her to start,
possess, and manage a significant number of small businesses.
(Galor and Stelios, 2006) in economic growth between advanced and less developed countries
can narrow owing growth of entrepreneurial activity. (DeTienne and Chandler 2007)It can be
observed that female entrepreneurial activity is more sensitive to economic cycles than male
entrepreneurial activity. Then, differences in the process of creating businesses could depend
on differences of the gender of the entrepreneur.
Many governments have taken actions to support the engagement of women in self-
employment or business creation and female entrepreneurship is growing. But still gender gap
is there. Women are considered to be more competitive but they are shy. Women some ethnic
minority groups the disabled and those in rural areas may all face some degree of additional
problems in trying to start a business i.e. finance, labor, market. The increase in female and
ethnic minority entrepreneurship is likely to have a positive effect on economic development
and they are successfully starting new life.
The contribution made by women business owners to economic development includes job
creation as well as economic growth stemming from the increase in their active involvement in
corporate life. They also enrich business processes due to the differences that exist in the way
that they act and conduct themselves compared to their male counterparts (Safarik, 2003;
Reed ,2012).
Lecture and discuss ideas then to share our findings with scholars, policy-makers, and the
greater entrepreneurial community of Sweden and, finally, to broaden our scope and engage
additional researchers from around the world to form research on female entrepreneurship
was valued. High employment growth aspiration female entrepreneurship, in different
countries. Here We investigate the brunt of general measures of the rule of law and the size of
government as well as the effects of gender specific aspects of the rule of law and the role of
the state on female entrepreneurship and higher aspiration growth projects.
people are either born with the right personality and skills or they are not, and there is not
much that one can do about it. Women can influence entrepreneurial behavior.
The number, size, and types of women owned businesses have been undergoing dramatic
changes In the USA alone, between 1987 and 1997, the number of women-owned businesses
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rose by 89%. Female entrepreneurship can also have a significant impact on economic
development and poverty lessening.
(Smallbone and Welter, 2006)Institutional theory is used as a guiding frame of reference
because the specific characteristics of the external environment under transition conditions
make the latter a particularly strong influence on entrepreneurship, compared with a context
where the formal institutional framework is more benign for entrepreneurs and the macro
environment generally more stable.
The process of transformation towards market economies deprived a majority of women in the
former Soviet states of their paid jobs, as well as most of the social security provided under
socialism. In these conditions, female entrepreneurship is important not only to alleviate
growing unemployment but also to take advantage of the potential contribution of women to
economic and social transformation. The importance of women in the world of work as
business owners or employees has become a significant phenomenon in recent decades
throughout the developed world, making it advisable to review the situation of women in
business (as entrepreneurs and the way that their situation in the social and family context (as
conditioned by gender) facilitates or hinders their work or entrepreneurial activity.(Klapper and
Delgado 2007) .The role of women entrepreneurs in the process of economic development has
been Recognized form nineties in various parts of the world. Today, in the world of business,
entrepreneurship has become an essential movement in many countries and has been
accepted in all areas of working. Entrepreneurship is essential for the continued dynamism of
the modern market economy and a greater entry rate of new businesses which can foster
competition and economic growth. For the purpose of strengthening the economies of the
countries in the region, the government should reform policies related that of gender
stereotype and mentor the families and communities (inhibitors) to recognize the women in
economic participation.
In this way, the growing presence of women in the corporate sector and the differences that
exist between men and women business owners (Pellegrino and Reece 1982; Cuba, 1983;
Renko, 2012) justify the need to carry out targeted research into woman business owners,
without the need to draw comparisons with their male counterparts. At business start-up in
particular, the aptitudes management skills, experience, etc. - of business owners become
particularly significant (Baum and Locke 2004).








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Literature Review


The increasing presence of women in the business field as entrepreneurs or business owners in
the last decades has changed the demographic characteristics of entrepreneurs. Women-
owned businesses are playing a more active role in society and the economy, inspiring
academics to focus on this interesting phenomenon.
Important academic publications such as Frontiers of Entrepreneurship (Babson, 1981), Journal
of Business Venturing (1985-) and Entrepreneurship, and Theory & Practice (formerly American
Journal of Small Business, 1988-) have encouraged the creation of studies on women as
business owners (Swedberg, 2000; Veciana 1999; Brush, 1992). Advances in this field of studies
have been helped by the fact that world institutions such as the United Nations and the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development have recognized the importance of
producing reports and statistics separated by gender and have encouraged their member
countries to carry out such studies.
In an attempt to find a psychological characterization of the entrepreneur, empirical studies
exploring cognitive and personality aspects such as the studies realized by (Catley and
Hamilton, 1998) and (Sexton and Bowman, 1990) maintain that there are no significant
differences between male and female entrepreneurs regarding psychological characteristics. A
recent theory developed by the psychologist (Baron-Cohen,2003) indicates, from a genetic and
biological foundation, women are physically better wired (brains structure) for empathy than
men, implying that they are better at social skills, such as their perception of other people and
social adaptability. Furthermore the social feminism theory suggests women are better
empathizers due to the fact that persons are shaped by different societal experiences. Where
men are socialized to be masterful, dominant, and competitive, women are socialized to be
nurturing and relational (Gilligan, 1982 and Aldrich, 1989; in Greene, 1999). Despite of these
theories suggesting same profile for women and men behavior not conclusive results are found
in empirical studies on entrepreneurs, e.g. Leahy and Eggers (1998).
According to various empirical studies some of the main push and pull motivations for women
to become entrepreneurs are the following: 1) push factors are dissatisfaction with their job,
flexibility to manage family obligations, independence and work aspirations; and 2) pull factors
are self-fulfillment, family and lifestyle motivators, and social recognition. In a study run by
(Amit1994), pull entrepreneurs were found to be more successful than push entrepreneurs.
Regarding to strategies in the new venture created, a general strategy follow in greater degree
in women-owned businesses is a product-service quality strategy (Chaganti and Parasuraman,
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1996). With respect to the rhythm of growth, tend to have slower early growth trajectories
(Minniti, 2005). Women showed a preference for slower-growth strategies due to the risks
associated with fast-paced growth strategies (Cliff, 1998), Gundry and Welsch (2001) analyzed
rapid-growth-oriented women entrepreneurs and identified their distinctive characteristics as
having a team-based form of organizational design, strong leadership, and utilizing a wider
range of financing sources for the expansion of the venture.(Kourilsky and Walstad, 1998; Kyro,
2001; DeMartino and Barbato, 2003),
In 2004 a cross-national study on womens entrepreneurial activity, the first study launched by
the Consortium on female entrepreneurship-. This study included 34 country members from all
over the world4, for each income group of countries was analyzed the behavior of women
entrepreneurs dimension, which considered universal factors such as: age, education, work
status, network, perceived skills, opportunity recognition, and fear of failure. (Minniti, 2005).
The results related to the traits perspective (e.g. women entrepreneurs age are in the range of
25-34 years old, except in the high-income countries where it was 35-44 years old) do not differ
from male entrepreneurs. Moreover, other studies concluded the same, not significant
demographic distinctions were found between the characteristics of male and female
entrepreneurs (Sexton and Bowman-Upton, 1990; Brush and Bird, 1996; Hisrich, 1997).
The process of how men and women entrepreneurs organize their businesses seems similar.
Both prefer to start a business with someone they know well or have had ties with on a social
level, and both prefer same-sex teams. Social networking and social capital play an important
role for women entrepreneurs recognize the fact that a single strong affiliation with a womens
organization can improve business performance (Aldrich, 2002).



Hypothesis 1:
The level of education of women business owners influences the motivations, barriers and
factors of success.

There is some controversy in corporate literature dealing with the level of education of women
business owners. Certain research conclude that women business owners have a better overall
education than the majority of the population, including their male While others conclude that
the overall level of education of business owners is the same, regardless of sex, and that any
real differences that do exist refer to the type of education received.
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It could be concluded that education does not influence achieving better results in activities
carried out by both men and women. Women who have studied specific functional business
areas have a greater and better vision of how to achieve profit.



Hypothesis 2:
Occupational experience prior to the constitution of the company by women entrepreneurs.


It was noted that the occupational experience of women business owners primarily revolves
around marketing or production or family businesses, which in principle is of benefit when it
comes to beginning to manage their own companies. Women believe, as do men, that their
occupational experience has provided them with the practical expertise required to perform
their business activities the ability to build relationships with clients and suppliers, intuition,
perspective, etc. At the same time, the experience they acquire leaves them more self-
confident, more flexible, more tolerant and also more careful

Hypothesis 3:
Experience in business influences the business activity.

Much of the literature on woman entrepreneur points out that acquired business experience
has a positive influence on the idea of starting up a new company of their own. The studies
carried out show that only a small number of women business owners have business expertise
prior to starting their new .And in general terms, women have less business experience than
men. It is noted that 60 % of the women surveyed were first time business owners.

Hypothesis 4:
The managerial skills of women business owners influence the motivations, the barriers and the
factors for their success

Certain research suggests that women behave differently from their male counterparts, namely
how they perform their managerial functions. Specifically, it would appear that women
business owners adopt a managerial style based on cultural and social values that are different
from those of men. In this regard, a number of different authors state that women business
owners use a more participative and democratic managerial style than do men, looking to
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achieve consensus with their employees, delegating a greater number of functions and sharing
a greater amount of information and power than do their male counterparts.

METHODOLOGY


Methods:

Six Czech and eight Polish women entrepreneurs participated in this study. Polish women
entrepreneurs were invited to participate through contacts with the Warsaw Chamber of
Commerce. In the Czech Republic, the Czech Business and Professional Womens Association
(APM) was first contacted for help in locating entrepreneurial women. The Chamber and
Association assisted the researchers in contacting potential candidates for the interviews.
Women were chosen to participate based on: owning a small international business; industry
(service vs. manufacturing); locationcapital city (Prague, Warsaw) vs. other areas; and ability
to meet with the researchers at a mutually convenient time.
Also, for the Czech women, selection was based on whether or not they participated in a small
business training program offered through the APM. The APM program was supported by
USAID with courses in The Czech Republic followed by a summer in the United States where the
women shadowed American entrepreneurs. To test the role of formal business training, the
Czech sample was divided between a group of 68 LITUCHY AND REAVLEY women who received
the APM training and a group who did not. The results for these two Czech sub-samples were
compared to those of the Polish participants who had not (as a group) completed a program
similar to that offered by the APM. Similar to research in this area conducted in other countries
(McCarthy et al., 1997; Pellegrino and Reece, 1982), the case study method was employed for
the purpose of data collection. A bilingual research assistant conducted structured interviews in
Czech or Polish. The interviews were tape recorded with the permission of the interviewees.
Structured, open-ended questions were used as the primary data-gathering instrument. The
interview was divided into five parts. In the first part of the interview, each participant was
asked to provide demographic information. In the second part of the interview, each
participant was asked to give a brief history of her business and to explain why she decided to
start her own business; what problems she faced at the start-up stage; and what she most
enjoys about being in business. In the third part of the interview, each participant provided
further background information on her business, including type, year registered, ownership,
products/services, customers, competition, size, and growth in sales, and number of
employees. In part four of the interview, each participant was asked open-ended questions
about the successes and challenges she faced. Specifically, shewas asked to describe any
problems she had encountered in several business management areas, including finance,
marketing, technology, production, managing people, and government regulations. Each
woman was also asked to identify the decision making style she used and to summarize what it
means to her to be a woman in business. Finally, each entrepreneur was asked to discuss her
plans for the future. The interviewtapeswere transcribed and translated into English by
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bilingual research assistants. The researchers coded the transcripts following the methods
described byYin (1984) and Miles and Huberman (1984). Transcripts were then analyzed and
coded by two of the researchers, individually, for each dimension of the three models of
entrepreneurship. Next, the researchers compared results. Inter-rater reliability ranged from
85% 98% for each of the women in the study. The researchers then reviewed any differences
and came to an agreement on each of these items.

RESEARCH SAMPLE 1:

A mailed questionnaire survey was used primarily as a research methodology.
In this research, the Manifest Needs Questionnaire (MNQ) developed by Steers and
Braunstein [23] was used to obtain responses for the four needs under study achievement;
affiliation; autonomy; and dominance. This instrument consists of 20 items assessing the extent
to which respondents demonstrate certain behaviours in the work environment. Besides
answering questions regarding their behaviours at work, respondents were also required to
provide some information about themselves, e.g. educational background and family
background. Entrepreneurs were required to answer additional questions on their businesses,
e.g. age of business founding. Basically, two groups of respondents were included in this study
women entrepreneurs and women employees. Convenience sampling [ 24] was the primary
sampling technique used for the purpose of this research. A total of 343 questionnaires were
sent and 110 questionnaires were used in this study 53 entrepreneurs and 57 employees.

SAMPLE 2:

The target population of this study comprises women business owners from the Community of
Valencia. A sample of 155 businesses started by women was chosen. The sample size ensures a
maximum error of 7.8 %, with a confidence level of 95 %, at worst, for dichotomous questions
(p0q050 %). The information was obtained through surveys carried out in person with the
women business owners. The design of the questions was primarily based on studies that had
already been tested, including amongst others, those carried out by Verheul and Thurik (2001),
Ribeiro (2003a and b), Carter et al. (2007). As far as the validity and reliability of the scales used,
Chronbachs internal consistency was used to verify the reliability of the scale for each factor.
Work on testing the hypothesis begins with the factorial analysis carried out in an earlier
research piece (Akehurst et al. 2012) followed by a series of linear regressions. Factor analysis
carried out for each of the issues addressed - motivations, barriers and factors for success
allows us to determine the constructs that are going to be formed, guaranteeing the validity of
each and every one of them. Four factors were obtained from the factor analysis carried out on
the motivation dimension, which explains 71.57 % of the variance: born entrepreneurs,
recognition and inheritance, financial and professional ambition and job dissatisfaction. The
business barriers faced by women dimension, which explains 69.34 % of the variance, is
comprised of 5 factors: difficulties with infrastructures and training, difficulties as a
consequence of gender, bureaucratic and financial difficulties, competitive difficulties and
conciliation difficulties. Lastly, factors for success consisted of a single factor (managerial
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skills) that explains 60.44 % of the variance. Once the factor analysis was carried out, the
hypotheses under consideration were tested using linear regressions. Three linear regressions
were carried out to link dependent variables - motivations, difficulties and factors for success-
with the independent variables thatwere referred to in the theoretical framework level of
education.

Sample 3:

To test the model and hypotheses we use data gathered through a survey exploring the
determinants of risk behaviour in Bulgarian enterprises (Andronov and Aleksandrova, 2003). A
stratified sampling technique was used to compose the sample, which included 382 owner-
managers of enterprises with less than ten employees (Andronov and Aleksandrova, 2003).
There are no significant differences between the distribution of the selected enterprises and
the total population of such enterprises in Bulgaria according to sector, number of employees,
and region. In this study an entrepreneur is someone who is an owner-manager of a business.
The sample contains 141 female entrepreneurs (36.9 per cent of the sample) and 241 male
entrepreneurs (63.1 per cent of the sample), which is similar to the gender distribution of the
total population of entrepreneurs in Bulgaria according to the National Statistical Institute (NSI,
2004).





Conclusion:

The purpose of this study is to determine which variables linked to the skills of women business
owners level of education, previous occupational experience, prior business expertise and
managerial skills are related to their motivations at business startup, the barriers facing them
when starting a business and the key factors for success in entrepreneurship.
The analysis undertaken shows that the lack of education and managerial skills of women
business owners are two of the most important variables when it comes to understanding the
motivations and the difficulties they face:

1. The lack of education impedes born entrepreneurship in women and compounds the barriers
and difficulties facing them when running a business. Taking into account the fact that a
number of different studies conclude that long-term growth and prosperity result from an
increased involvement of women in corporate life (Reynolds et al 2001), there might be merit
to implementing specific approaches that encourage women entrepreneurs to continue their
education.

2. Managerial skills appear to be positively linked to that factors that motivate and push women
towards starting their own businesses. Nevertheless, women business owners possessing the
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best skills for running a company feel that they are faced with increased difficulties. This fact
might at first appear striking, but it can be explained by a greater awareness of these women
entrepreneurs when dealing with all issues involving business start-up. This would imply
perhaps that they should work to simplify procedures bureaucracy, administration etc.
required to go through when starting a business.
Lastly, this study does have its limitations and these could form the foundations of future
research. On the one hand, the results cannot be applied to other areas and regions that do not
share the same characteristics.



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